Witness: Kilpatrick Traveled On Public Dollars

FILE -- In a May 25, 2010 file photo, former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick listens as Judge David Groner sentences him to one-and-a-half to five years in prison for violating the terms of his probation on an obstruction of justice conviction. Kilpatrick walked free from a state prison early Tuesday Aug. 2, 2011 after serving just over a year. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

DETROIT -- A businessman says then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick repeatedly traveled around the country aboard his private planes and never paid a dime in return. Tony Soave says he was uncomfortable with the arrangement but didn't want to cross the mayor and jeopardize any work with the city. Soave was a government witness Wednesday in Kilpatrick's ongoing corruption trial. Prosecutors allege that Kilpatrick enriched himself while in office by pocketing bribes and extorting people who had city contracts. He resigned in 2008. Soave says Kilpatrick, sometimes accompanied by family, took 20 round-trip flights aboard his planes to destinations that included the Bahamas, Florida, New York and Texas. Soave says he paid for a $6,000 watch in New York that Kilpatrick gave to his father, Bernard, as a Christmas gift.

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